Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-28

gas in the city proper. Pittsburgers see
natural gas fires in their houses and mills
and great volumes of fame shooting from
escape pipes on ell sides of the city, and
for year they have not seen the tops of
buildings obscured by smoke, but compar-
stiyely few realize the magnitude of the
operations which have made this possible.
SIX companies are now piping gas to
PitLsburg. Their combined capital is
SI4, 100000. Their supply is drawn from
wells on all sides of the city, and at dis
tsnCes varying from six to thirty miles.
During the TWO years ending December
81 over 500 miles of pipe, varying from
one To thirty inches IN diameter, have
been laid This work during last year
furnished employment to 5000 men. AS
many more miles of pipe will be laid be-
fore the close of this year.
What the introduction of gas has done
for Pittsburg can hardly be stated in.
words. In addition to having furnished
constant employment for from 5000 to
5000 men at the work Of pipe-laying dur
ing the last two years, it has kept eleven
iron mills, employing 1000 men, at work
night and day in the manufacture of pipes.
The aggregate product of, these mills
during 1886 was 240, 900 tons. Taking
the average size of the pipe manufactured
to be six inches in diameter, weighing
tWenty-eight pounds to the foot, if the
product of these mills was put together
it would make lfne of pipe $500 miles
long. With these mills making nothing
but pipe-irOn, with the quality of the pro-
duct of all improved by the use of gas for
fuel instead OF coal, and with the cost of
production greatly decreased, iron and
steel manufacturers do not like to tell
exactly how much they have been bene
fitted. They admit, however, that the
total output of the mills of the district
during the year 1886 was from % TO 40
! pr cent. greater than during the year
1885, and that the prospect for the present
year is equally good. 1t is an open
secret, too, that the price OF bar iron was
not advanced at the meeting of the West
ern Iron Association iD this city last week,
because, with natural gas as fuel, there
is more profit in iron made in this district
at 2 cents pound than manufacturers in
the east can make selling it at 2 lilo cents
q pound.
Every other industry has kept pace with
iron and steel, glass manufacturers, per-
| hRps, reaping richer harvest than any
other class. By the use of gas for fuel
the quality of their ware has been so i'm
proved that common Pittsburg glass is
now being used for mirrors Until few
months ago this branch Of the glass trade
was mOnopolized by Belgian manufac-
turers. Natural gas has also made the
manufacture Of plateglass of the first
quality possible. Two immense factories
one at Tarentum and the other at But
ler-have been erected aud plans are being
prepared for another. The Tarentum
factory is one OF the largest in the world
It's owners pipe the gas used for fuel from
their own well, few miles from the fac
tory. Their saving on account of fuel,
and by reason of the tact that no money
has TO be paid for ash-hsulers and coal
handlers, is admitted to be $1,000 for each
working day in the year.
The whole of Western Pennsylvania and
the border counties of OHIO have the same
advantages enjoyed by PIttsburg. Manu-
| featuring enterprises are organized in
every town, and the prediction is made by
conservative men that within ten years
the territory between Johnstown, Pa, on
the east, and Cleveland, Ohio, on the
| west, will be the greatest manufacturing